Pay-by-phone and text-alert services to help SF drivers avoid tickets

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency plans to launch a new service that sends drivers text alerts if their parking meters are about to expire. People also will be allowed to plug the meters remotely using their cell phones. Existing time restrictions won’t change.

A 45-cent “convenience” fee will be charged for each pay-by-phone transaction. The service is voluntary.

The program first will roll out in the Castro district, covering the curbside meters located on Castro Street between 19th and Market streets, and on 18th Street between Diamond and Hartford streets. It also will be available for the metered spaces in the two city-owned parking lots off of 18th Street and off of Castro Street.

The fine for parking at an expired meter in the Castro is $55 — the cost is $65 in the downtown core — and is among the costliest in the nation.

If successful, the pay-by-phone options will be expanded to other neighborhoods as part of the city’s SFpark experiment that is uses technology to make parking at meters more convenient and demand-based pricing to reduce traffic congestion.